I'd escaped, barely. Having Brannon grab me filled me with a lot of mixed feelings. As far as the opposite sex went, he was up there on the scale of good looks. But that was to be expected, he was a deity and he was the son of the devil. He was meant to be beautiful, to tempt mankind into taking the deal of a lifetime. Though, that wasn't his job. Not yet, maybe one day he'd take a place by his father's side, maybe he'd never do it.
As I scaled the stairs to my third floor apartment, I thought about him far too much. The girls fluttered their eyes at him and Luca, swooning over their bad boy status in the school. Everyone loved a rebel.
Sirens filled the air as I reached my floor, a ball of hair and fluff skittered across the worn wood floor. I sighed, not because of this place or this land but because I was assigned a place based on my rank in my world and to be sent here it meant that they didn't think much of me.
Pushing open the door I saw an envelope had been slipped under it, a dull brown colouring that made me want to groan. I picked it up and ignored the seal, a loophole that not many knew of. Break the seal and be bound to the contents, rip the envelope and leave the seal intact and you're all good.
I read the letter, rolling my eyes at how formal they could be.
"Yay, a meeting."
As I opened the door to the refrigerator, I looked at the abysmal contents.
"Guess it's take out again."
Closing the door, I looked at my hand and in particular to my fingers. Infra angels were not allowed to cast spells outside of our own dominion, if I got caught then they would send me to the warmth of hell. As I waggled my fingers at the kitchen bench I thought that if I was sent to hell for this, at least I could talk to Brannon.
A steaming hot pizza appeared with a bottle of cola.
"Really fingers, cola is what you come up with. You could have sent some beer for me."
Maybe it was my subconscious telling me that being hungover tomorrow was unwise. I still had to get through another day before the weekend.
With the television not working I turned on the computer, preferring to read through the latest news while eating dinner.
"What a life eh Elvis?"
The little bobble toy sat motionless until I flicked him, then the hips started shaking.
"Yeah, you rock it out."
When I got sick of reading about the death and destruction, I started my homework. Well, I waggled my fingers at it. I didn't have time to do it, not when I had been summoned to appear.
Ensuring that all the doors and windows were locked and the blinds were down, I drifted to the assigned meeting room. They were all the same in a long corridor of doors, the numbers were the only difference. Door number thirteen, how lucky could this girl get?
I pressed the buzzer and the green light went on, pushing it open I was faced with the usual interview room. It was one chair under a pool of light, facing a large mirror on the wall. Other than the hanging bulb, there was no other light to be had, darkness filled the void.
"Close the door Emily." The darkness echoed.
Closing the door, I made my way to the edge of the light.
"Please be seated and tell us of what has happened since your last report."
I nodded and sat down, taking a deep breath before beginning.
"Friday night the subject went to a bar with the vampire associate, Luca Delacroix. They stayed there until midnight and then moved to another location where they stayed until two am. After that they shifted countries and time zones, continuing until just before dawn in the final time zone. They retreated to the underworld where I was unable to maintain a visual until they surfaced again on Saturday night. It was a repeat of Friday night, nothing different."
My fingers were laced on my lap, fast becoming knotted. I hated this situation, I hated the impersonal feel to it and I hated that it made me feel like I was a criminal.
"No visual contact made on Sunday, Monday the subject arrived at the school at ten am where he attended five classes, two lunch breaks, conversed with the vampire at several points during the day and attended the head mistresses' office."
Just another ordinary day, nothing unusual at all.
"Tuesday and Wednesday he attended six classes beginning at nine am, which was the only difference to Monday."
"And today?"
Oh well, today. How to explain that I interfered.
"Four classes, one lunch break."
"And what of the remainder of the day?"
My fingers twisted hard as the anxiety grew fast. It was likely they would pull me from the assignment because I'd become too involved.
"The vampire was misbehaving and the head mistress was about to drag them into the office."
Again.
"And so I might have interrupted her and offered an explanation that could be construed as an alibi."
I waited for the inevitable.
"Alright Emily, the report is acceptable."
Okay, that was unexpected.
"We have an alteration to your assignment."
A panel pushed out from under the mirror, one scroll sat on the metal panel. Alterations were common but they weren't always a good thing. Sometimes they were terrible things.
Warily I reached out for it and unfurled the paper, looking at the words upon it.
"You are to proceed with the new request as well as the continuation of your current assignment. Your next report will be due in one week and we hope that you have prepared yourself sufficiently to meet the demands of this new request. Do you have any questions Emily?"
I shook my head, rolling the scroll back up and putting it onto the panel. It slowly slid back into the wall as I stepped back to my little pool of light.
"Good luck Emily." the voice said, filled with humour.
"Thank you."
I turned to the door and walked out more with more worry than I had come with. This assignment sucked.